Monday, 30 July 2012

Mist and early morning starts

Posting has been a bit light of late because I've been so knackered each night. I'm lucky if I can avoid falling asleep on the couch when I get home, only to drag myself off to bed at 2200hrs at the latest. I've been starting well before dawn some mornings, which means very little photography in the inky blackness. Or the misty mistiness.

I tried an experiment today to see if I can end the week feeling less wrecked - that meant cycling in at a kindler, gentler pace. The sort of pace you achieve when you fit mudguards to your bike. It was actually pretty hard for me to ride slower than normal - I had to concentrate and work on easing up. It didn't always work, but I did my best to ride like someone with mudguards.

The results were interesting - on the last section coming home, I was bursting with energy when tackling the last few hills. I really wanted to tear up them like no tomorrow, but I resisted and took them gently. I wasn't sweating much when I finished - if anything, I was cold. The legs feel good - totally free of the usual aches and pains. Even the pain in my knee has subsided.

There's just one thing missing - I'm still thinking about work, and the problems of the day. A hard ride does one thing very effectively - it wipes the mind of all your troubles and tribulations. I sleep very easily after bashing myself silly on the bike. I stress not at all. I actually have neck tension at the moment from the crap I had to go through at work today.

So it's a choice between sore legs or a sore neck. Stressing the body or stressing the mind.

I think tomorrow I am going to ride to and from work in the red zone. This dawdling along at mudguard speed shits me.